Is it time to get rid of Ted Phillips?

"We’re pretty proud of that that you can kind of sustain strong business relationships without worrying about wins and losses. Obviously, when you win it’s better.”

It was time to get rid of Ted Phillips a decade ago because as long as he's CEO and the Bears operate on this premise they will never be consistent winners.  He's not a football guy he's a bean counter but the Bears will always turn a profit win or lose.  For that reason alone the McCaskey's will not fire him even when it's obvious the person in charge sitting in the CEO chair needs to be a football man.

More than likely at the McCaskey's suggestion Teddy always keeps a low profile so they're never put on the spot over why he's still here presiding over consistently losing teams.  He's a big part of that losing culture make no mistake but not so much for what he does as for what he simply cannot do.  He cannot lead a winning NFL football organization.  He's about as suitable for it as I would be running a nuclear submarine.  So there's at least 50% or more of the reason why the Bears remain consistent losers while others become consistent winners.

Now let's contrast Teddy Bear's attitude to one of the greatest football men who ever lived.



Are there any further question about how this guy began a tradition in Green Bay that still exists today and why since Lombardi came along Green Bay has kicked our asses harder and more often than we've kicked theirs?  If there are any questions then read the rest of his quotes.

www.vincelombardi.com/quotes.html

When GMcC told us all after he fired Emery and Trestman that things were gonna change around Halas Hall from now on.  That the team would hire and be run by good football people.  To me that meant Ted Phillips would be relegated to running spread sheets for the McCaskey family in some distant corner of the building far from the nerve center of football operations.  It's just as obvious now that hasn't happened as it is that the team is still does not have capable hands manning all stations.

IMHO, and only IMHO, we've reached a nexus with the McCaskeys and this team.  Most Bears fans are not ready for one more set of excuses for why things are the way they are and will likely remain that way because no changes are forthcoming.  Most fans are no longer willing to accept that.  Not even die hard fans of over 50 years like me.  Just as I would not continue to eat in a restaurant that serves crappy food at outrageous prices coupled with lousy service I don't feel I need to accept another excuse from John Fox, Ryan Pace, or George McCaskey for this pathetic crap the expect fan support for.

The ones I feel bad for are a few players who have gone out every week and played as well as they can play in a system as fouled up as this is and have had to labor under a HC without a single clue of how to improve anything.  A HC whose more interested in keeping is in as much suspense about injuries and personnel decisions as Trumpy is about accepting the will of the American people on election day.  Foxy what kind of strategic secrets can you have that if know could possibly hurt this team any worse than your POS coaching has done?  The more often you say it the dumber you look.

So yeah, Ted Phillips should be gone but he won't be because he's the guardian of the Bears bank account and even if GMcC and Ginny thought Fox should be fired Teddy Bear will show 'em the costs of doing so and they'll shrug and give us more excuses with bad luck and injuries at the top of the list instead of bad coaching and quite possibly bad drafting.  I've defended the McCaskeys before (all but Mikey) but if the maintain status quo after all this I'm done doing that.  They will have broken a promise made two years ago and if they aren't will to swallow another bitter pill that's the death knell for me.

Then I think what's best is they should simply sell the team to their minority owners and cash out.  Pat Ryan and Andrew McKenna can then sell whatever portion they can't absorb to another and for once we'll be done having a team run by a bean counter and a family of great Bears fans who simply have no idea how to run a winning football organization.  That ability died with George Halas and did not pass to his heirs.

And in that you're correct but please read my post bb.  Read his comments to Jeff Joniak and then harken back to those he made after we played in the Super Bowl and he was asked about increasing payroll costs for players and coaches.  Based on how Mikey became a cheapo following in SB win in '86 it was a legit question.  A very legit question.

Do you recall his response?  I do.  He basically pleaded some degree of poverty and financial constraint because the McCaskey's were not independently wealthy people and said that Bears fans should not expect to win every year if if wasn't affordable to do so. Now, ten years hence match that up with what he just told Jeff Joniak.  The words may be different but the message is much the same.

Ted Phillips is the President/CEO of the Bears.  The highest ranking officer in the corporation and the HNIC where the buck stops and by that I mean he controls the bucks stopping their outflow when need be.  All of them.  Running the business side means he is the keeper of the McCaskeys only real form of wealth and all of the bank accounts that don't belong to a member of the McCaskey family personally. Basically he is the bank and of the McCaskey's didn't need him he'd have been gone long ago.  He's the one who keeps them making a profit and keeps them from losing their $1.3 billion dollar team.

So don't kid yourself when you limit Teddy Bears influence like you did.  It's far greater than you think.  Or in the words of Trumpy "it's yuge"......"it's bigly"!

Ryan Pace may report directly to GMcC but if he says he wants to fire John Fox which means the Bears will have to eat 2 - 2 1/2 years of his 4 year contract Ted Phillips will be there with his spread sheets, his P&L and his advice and I have a hunch what it will be.

"So....What do we think changes on the field if Phillips is fired"?

Maybe a lot but none of it soon enough to help much with this disaster.  But.....since he's the keeper of the keys to the vault I think Ginny will be long dead and buried before that ever happens.  As long as the McCaskey's own controlling interest and Ted Phillips draws breath he'll more than likely keep his job the inept fool that he is.

I wish this organization would get a owner like Robert Kraft. Under his leadership, the New England Patriots are currently the NFL's second-most-valuable franchise, valued at $3.4 billion, according to Forbes. During his tenure as owner, the Patriots have won more division titles (15), conferences titles (7) & Super Bowls (4) than any NFL team.

Some quotes from him as well.

"Everybody in our organization puts winning first," Kraft said. "We have people check their ego in at the front door and do whatever they can do, whether it's the guy cutting the grass, or the young lady answering the switchboard, we're all putting 'team' first."

"We try to create an environment where we have a system where we're not dependent on any one person or party," Kraft said.

"You have to step back and look at the big picture," he said. "Over the last decade, our ratings are up roughly 30 percent, while broadcast prime-time ratings are roughly down 30 percent."

Link: www.cnbc.com/2016/10/21/patriots-owner-robert-kraft-shares-his-secret-of-success.html

So under Ted Phillips : we hire consulting firms who tell us which INEXPERIENCED ( "cheaper") GM's to hire and those GM's consistently hired inexperienced HC's . Now we have an 'experienced' HC operating under an inexperienced GM ( still ) . So the common denominator is Phillips making sure INEXPERIENCED ( which = UNPROVEN ) people running this franchise .

How bout we go out and get experienced people ( from top to bottom ) , with a PROVEN winning track record , running this team for once ?

( ... or maybe they'll be content basically throwing their money away for another decade . )